Release v2.4.14 of Ktistec is small in terms of features and fixes, but it improves in two areas where I thought Ktistec was weak: light/dark mode support and autosave.

I'm not hardcore dark mode, but I do prefer it in some cases. Ktistec selects light or dark mode based on the browser or system setting—there is currently no means to select the mode directly. A nice side effect of light/dark mode support is that custom theming support comes nearly for free.

Ktistec was meant for writing. I post my fair share of one-line bits of wisdom, but I started building Ktistec because I wanted a space to write long form, and existing Fediverse platforms were more for social interaction. When writing long form, autosaving is an essential feature. Ktistec will now autosave draft posts and replies. If you navigate away before publishing, you can always find the incomplete draft in the Drafts collection which is accessible from your timeline page.

Added

• Add design system page for previewing UI elements.
• Support custom themes with automatic light/dark mode switching.
• Add autosave functionality for new posts, draft posts, and replies.

Changed

• Add external link indicators.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

I was planning on adding support for custom themes in release v2.4.13 of Ktistec. That turned out to be difficult, so I implemented post visibility instead—which then also turned out to be difficult. C'est la vie.

The editor now includes radio buttons for controlling post distribution and visibility. In particular, you can now send messages directly to mentioned users without sending them to all of your followers.

You can also mark posts as sensitive using the content warning checkbox in the editor. Sensitive posts are hidden behind a summary that readers can click to reveal the content.

This release of Ktistec includes RSS feeds and RSS feed discovery. RSS feeds are currently available for the site home page and account pages.

Here's the full changelog:

Added

• Support RSS feeds on the home page and account pages. (fixes #14)
• Hide sensitive content, spoilers, etc. with content warnings.
• Support direct messages with proper visibility controls.

Changed

• Switch from calendar-based periods to duration-based periods in charts.

Fixed

• Track and federate object updates.
• Fix object visibility bugs in object replies and threads.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

I've been running v3.0.0 of Ktistec in production for the last few weeks, and it seems stable and I’m using it every day, so it’s time to release it!

This release adds:

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. Ktistec can act as an MCP Server.
• OAuth2 authentication support. Ktistec can act as both an OAuth2 authentication server and a resource server.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a simple, general API that exposes Ktistec ActivityPub collections (timeline, notifications, likes, announces, etc.) to MCP clients. To be fully transparent about what this means, MCP clients are shells for Large Language Models (LLMs).

When building this, I focused on a few use cases that are important to me: content summarization, content prioritization (or filtering) based on my interests or the content's structure (well-constructed arguments vs. low-signal opinions) or its tone, especially when it comes to shared posts. Ktistec is a single user ActivityPub server and Epiktistes (my instance) gets a lot of traffic. I want to build the “algorithms” that surface the content I want to see.

Of note, there’s currently no support for content generation.

While I work on this, I’m not abandoning the 2.x line. I’ll continue to add compatible features and fix bugs as long as I'm able. I realize the use of LLMs, and MCP by extension, and therefore the 3.x branch, is controversial—I don’t intend to push v3 on anyone.

If you're still with me, Ktistec now exposes:

• MCP Resources
  • ActivityPub actors (ktistec://actors/{id*})
  • ActivityPub objects (ktistec://objects/{id*})
  • registered users (ktistec://users/{id})
  • server information (ktistec://information)
• Tools
  • count_collection_since(name, since)
  • paginate_collection(name, page, size)
  • read_resources(uris)
• Prompts
  • whats_new

Supported collections include:

• timeline, notifications, posts, drafts, likes, announces, followers, following
• collections of hashtags of the form hashtag#<name> (e.g., "hashtag#technology")
• collections of mentions of the form mention@<name> (e.g., "mention@euripides")

There is more detail in the README.

TL;DR Add a remote MCP connector in your MCP client of choice: supply the URL of your instance including the /mcp path (e.g. "https://epiktistes.com/mcp").

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang #mcp #llm